Friday, August 29, 2008

Martha's 50-Hour Journey

I just wanted to give you the latest update on my widowed-daughter, Martha Berg, and her five children. Her in-laws in Seattle, Washington had not seen Martha and the children since Phil's death, January 16, 2006. So she and the five little ones flew out to Seattle from Jerusalem this summer.

The relatives took them to a beautiful family camp for two weeks and paid for everything. They had a glorious time after her strenuous twelve years work in Israel. I know that Martha was very overdue for a rest.

After their vacation Martha, her five children, and eleven huge pieces of luggage boarded the plane for the flight back to Israel. They changed planes in New York City and then flew onward to Tel Aviv. When they landed in Israel the immigration officials placed all of them in ten hours of detention. Then they were deported and put on an El Al flight to Newark, New Jersey, which happened to be the next flight out of the country.

We can only imagine how tired and emotionally stressful this was for all of them, especially Martha!

Anna, who is three-years-old exclaimed, "I want to go home!"

Martha replied, "We cannot go home."

Anna said, very somberly, "O.K."

Then, a few minutes later she pronounced, "Then God will give us a new home!"

Oh, the faith of a child!

I would not have known anything about Martha and her family being deported, except for thoughtfulness of the man who was supposed to pick her up at the Tel Aviv airport. He called me at my home in Indiana and told me what had taken place.

Martha's sister, Heidi, called a friend, Jon Fussle, on the East Coast and asked him to rent a van, meet them as they came out of the custom area, and drive them to their motel. We were in Indiana, 900 miles from New York City, and there was no way to get to Martha and the children in time to meet them

All went well and our friend, Jon, met Martha and the children---who had now been traveling for more than 50 hours!!!!! They drove to the motel, unloaded all eleven bags and got settled in. This was about 7:00 a.m. They went down to eat breakfast and the children wanted to go swimming in the pool.

For some reason there was a distraction and Anna, who was two years of age, was knocked into the part of the pool that was over her head. Jon, our friend, leaped into the pool with his cell phone in hand, fully clothed, even with his shoes on. He was just in time and Anna emerged from the water, shaken, but O.K. Thank the Lord for this!

Just when they thought everything might get back to "NORMAL", Jon went out to the van and found that the van had been broken into and everything he owned had been stolen: passport, clothing, two laptops, etc., etc. The reason he had everything with him that he owned was because he was also on a trip back to Indiana. So there John stood, wet shoes, socks, dripping wet with no ID or money.

Fortunately, the story does not get worse. Heidi and I are on our way to be with Martha and the children for a week. Please keep us all in your prayers as we try to figure out the next move for this precious family. And send this out to all of your friends. Thank you so much.

You can send financial assistance to Martha: Full Life Crusade P.O. Box 398 Winona Lake, IN 46590!

L&P, Wes

P.S.

News update on Martha: August

Thank you so much for your concern and prayers for Martha.She still does not have permission from the Israeli immigration authorities to return to Jerusalem. But two U. S. Senators are in contact with the Israeli consulate in New York and we should know something in the next few weeks.

At this point everything that Martha owns is in her house in Jerusalem. And she cannot even go there to pack and ship her belongings to the United States. Also, she needs to enroll her children in school---either in the U.S. or Israel.

But be not dismayed! God is ordering her life and she is doing very well.

About Me

A former teacher who left his job 50 years ago to walk the path less traveled. This journey has taken me from the U.S. to 45 nations: 150 times, to places like China (60 times) and Haiti (40 times). For more: www.FLC7.com